DHAKA
Bangladesh opposition leader Khaleda Zia was set on Sunday to learn whether she would stand trial on charges of embezzling more than $650,000, in a case that could see her jailed for life.
The High Court in Dhaka was expected to rule on the two-time former premier’s last-minute bid to halt the trial scheduled for Monday, after she and her associates were indicted last month on corruption charges.
Zia’s lawyers have called the charges politically motivated — aimed at keeping her out of politics and destroying her Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which has vowed to topple the government of archrival Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
The lawyers argue Zia has been charged unlawfully and are seeking a court order to stop the trial, which was set to start on Monday in a special anti-corruption court in Dhaka.
“The charges framed against her were not done in accordance with the law,” her lawyer Moudud Ahmed, a former law minister, said.
